Dad ‘back with Anahera’

Pat O’Brien, 38, who died in a crash in Hawke’s Bay on Friday, has joined the daughter he lost a decade ago.

O’Brien, from Flaxmere, and Napier man Tony Anderson, 75, died when their cars collided on the Hawke’s Bay Expressway on Friday afternoon.

O’Brien has been remembered as a man always keen to give to others, particularly in his love of fitness and kickboxing.

He and wife Theresa ran the Lab Training Centre gym in Napier and organised the annual Battle for Life charity fight.

The event was to have been held for the 10th time on Saturday night but was not held because of O’Brien’s death.

Horiana Williams, a close family friend, said O’Brien was lying at Te Aranga marae and would be laid to rest today.

She said: ‘‘For such a young man, Pat made a huge impact on many members of our community through many roles . . . He used boxing as a vessel to create change.

‘‘It was never about learning to fight. It was about bringing change. Pat gave everybody a chance. He was a very humble man who didn’t have to say anything to speak volumes.’’

The O’Briens formed the Anahera O Te Rangi Charitable Trust in 2014. It is named after their daughter, Anahera, who died shortly after her birth in March 2009.

‘‘Pat is back with Anahera now. That is how we are looking at it,’’ Williams said.

The couple have two sons, Tyson and Elijah.

Williams, who chairs the trust, said it was a vehicle for distributing funds raised by Battle for Life and other means, for various causes in the Flaxmere community.

‘‘The Battle for Life has raised thousands of dollars each year, up to $20,000 one year, for grassroots providers that help people. For the past three years it has raised money for suicide awareness. This year was to be the same,’’ she said.

The future of Battle for Life would be discussed in the coming weeks, Williams said.

The trust, which has other funding streams, would continue to operate and distribute funding in the memory of Pat O’Brien and Anahera.

O’Brien played basketball for Hawke’s Bay and was a world champion kickboxer, having won the World Kickboxing Association 95-kilogram K1 Kickboxing Title Belt in April last year.

Anderson had been a farmer all his life until his retirement in 2012. His son, Hamish, said his father, who moved to Napier in 2012, was known to ‘‘enjoy a yarn’’ and was always a happy person.